If I Can't Have Her
by EstelleDusk
Summary: Chase watches the monks train while he contemplates his inability to have Kimiko, so he resolves that there's only one thing left he could do. Raise a child. One that is very much like his beloved. /Chamiko, Rated for mentions of mature themes
1. Chapter 1: Impossible

**AN:/**One-sided Chamiko, not sure yet if I want to make it acknowledged on both sides. But do respond in my poll if I should make this longer or not. Right now I'm settled on keeping it as it is, but the idea to expand it, is in the back of my mind.

**Disclaimer:** Xiaolin Showdown belongs to Christy Hui, this story and the idea behind it, belong to me.

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_If I can't have her…_

Chase wonders as he watches the Xiaolin monks train. He's not far away, but he's hidden himself in the shadows, and even cast a glamour spell to make sure he stays hidden. He likes watching them train, but most of all, he likes watching the first female Xiaolin monk become a woman without her friends even noticing. He notices, how could he not?

When he met her, she was small, delicate, fragile, but with a fiery disposition to match her Dragon element and a temper like no other. Then as she aged, as she and the rest of the young monks were taught about the vows they would have to take one day, she began to change. She is taller now, calluses cover her hands and feet, and the many scars show that she left behind her fragility. Her temper has lessened, her passion grows everyday, as does her power.

After six long years, learning to control her power, learning to be a Xiaolin monk and one day a Xiaolin Dragon, she was a woman now. And in another year, on her 21st birthday, she would be untouchable.

Those were the rules of being a Xiaolin Dragon Warrior. Once you are 21, you make the vow, and leave behind your old life completely. You give up your heritage. You give up any claims you have to material holdings outside of the Temple. And most of all, you give up your family, and any chance you had of creating one.

The Dragon of Earth, the first to turn 21, almost didn't make the vow. Clay had waited until the very last minute before he arrived in the temple's meditation hall a month ago, and swore himself forever to the Heylin-Xiaolin war.

The Dragon of Wind will also have trouble when it's finally his turn. Although Raimundo would be having trouble agreeing to give up his pursuit of pretty girls, instead of Clay's decision to give up his family.

The Dragon of Water will not hesitant in the slightest. Omi is, after all, an orphan, whose only family has always been the temple. And he's never looked at a girl the way Raimundo does, nor at a boy for that matter.

The Dragon of Fire…oh, how Chase wishes that like he, she would refuse the oath and leave the temple. But he knows Kimiko will more than likely take the oath with barely a thought. Over the years, she had slowly eased her dependence on her father until she hardly ever needed him for something. And she always spurned the affections of every person that tried to bestow them on her. Except for the one person that admired her, and refused to show it.

Chase refuses to let anyone know that she's often on his mind. When in public, he all but ignores the beautiful warrior and doesn't even include her in any of his many plans. Despite how well her fire-power could help him in taking over the world. He's certain that if he ever gets a taste of having her by his side for even a minute, he would never be able to let it go. And then she'd have a real reason to hate him besides being on opposite sides, which is never an actual reason.

_If I can't have her…_

His stray thought from earlier begins to repeat in his head. He tries his best not to let his mind finish the thought. But all the possibilities begin to flood his mind as he continues to watch her fight off her current opponent, Omi.

_Then why should they?…if I can't have her, then I need something to remember her by…if I can't have her, then can't I at least have a small part of her?_

_If I can't have her…_

_Then I should have her child._

That last one repeats the most, despite it's impossibility. He growls lightly as he tells his mind to shut up. But instead of his mind quieting, the words become louder as a part of him realizes what a perfect solution it would be.

_**Child.**__ Child. Her child should be __**ours.**__ Our child. Ours. An heir to remind us of __**her.**_

But he knows she would never let him touch her. She's never looked at him that way. And he would _never_ taint what should be a pleasurable memory, by raping her and seeing her fear and hatred of him. The only way he could get such a child would be with magic that he has never used. He'd have to study for who knows how long, just to make sure there wouldn't be any ill effects towards her. It would be tricky…but…perhaps it could be done?

He watches as Omi bows out and switches places with Raimundo. His wind attacks slice strands of her hair a few inches shorter. As the strands float to the ground, Chase remembers reading about a golem spell once that maybe he could use. He would have to alter it, of course. The spell called for one of his own ribs in an old biblical sense. It would create an opposite sex golem that would more or less be a clone of the caster and serve the caster until her dying breath.

He could change the potion somehow, include _her_ DNA, her genes. Make the golem a child of them both. Then he could raise his little…phoenix. Always have a reminder of the woman he loves without her knowing. He could get over this obsession of her.

But changing a spell is always so risky…perhaps he should go to Spicer instead and have him combine their DNA with the modern magic known as science. If it weren't for his DNA, Chase would go to one of the many clinics in the world and have it done that way, but those scientists, having no clue about the War, would think there was something wrong with his genes and refuse him no matter how he threatened them or paid them. As for Spicer…it's tempting, very tempting…

If only the boy genius wasn't such a loud-mouth. He would let it slip, accidentally of course, that a child was being made for his evil idol's evil plans. Then the monks would try to capture the child and would more than likely succeed. There's also the fact that Spicer would ask why Chase would combine his DNA with Kimiko's; after a day where the monks and he teamed up for an hour and faced DNA-targeting turrets, the Heylin Dragon knew that Spicer had the DNA of everyone in the War in his database.

Yes, it seems like he'll have to settle for magic in this case where science would be better equipped. Chase watches Raimundo bow out and switch places with Clay. The Dragon of Earth starts their spar by asking if his fiery friend is ready to take a break. Chase smirks when her response is a fireball.

He may not be able to have her, but he can have the next best thing. The daughter she'll never know she has.

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**AN:/** If you liked it, feel free to review, if you didn't like it, feel free to leave, if you are too lazy to review or login, then please, refresh the page a couple times so the hit counter goes up. ^_^


	2. Chapter 2: Flicker

**AN:/** By popular demand, here's a second chapter, this time, it's a look into Kimiko's mind. As a result, it is a bit jumbled and may jump around a bit, but I tried to keep it as non-jumbled as possible. To **ALL GUEST/ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS**, please make sure to continue on to the end of the chapter and read my answers to your reviews of chapter 1, okay? Also, I've posted the first chapter of this story on DeviantArt (you should be able to find it if you search for chamiko in the search bar), I'll post this chapter there after I've written chapter 3. I will keep DA a chapter behind for feedback reasons, as in, I'm counting on you guys and gals to notify me of any mistakes I made (heh, I always giggle now at that word thanks to my other story) that I didn't catch. As such...when I update, you should re-read the previous chapter to see if I made any changes, but I'll usually tell you if I did make any changes. Last thing before I let you all read your requested chapter, minus review replies and author's notes, this chapter has exactly 2300 words, which means I hit my NaNo daily wordcount (1500) on a fanfic instead of my proper novel that I seriously need to finish and publish as soon as possible. Be grateful.

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She knew he was there.

Everyone else may have been unable to sense him, but after what happened shortly before Rai became the first Shoku Warrior, she knew she would never not know when he was around. And when he did decide to spy on them, Kimiko made sure to show off. After all, no one else would bother appreciating all the hard work she put into every perfect martial arts form. Only the twice over greatest warrior to ever live could appreciate such a thing.

Why? That was so simple a question that she hated hearing the answer whenever her mind decided to remind her. In just a few short months, in the first week of April, she would make the Vow. When she had first learned that joining the Xiaolin Temple would include making a Vow of Chastity among other things when she turned 21, she saw no real problem with that. She could just leave a few days before her 21st birthday, take advantage of the training and schooling until then. It would be easy, and she saw no harm in it since she was also told upfront that she could refuse the Vow. She would then be forced to leave the Temple, true, but she didn't have to fully join their ranks and could drop out at any time.

Of course, that was her plan before she actually became friends with the guys. After that she would spend what seemed like hours on the phone, talking to her friend Keiko, and asking her what she should do. Should she stick with the plan to get training and then leave before she's 21? Or should she make the Vow and stay fighting by their side in the Xiaolin-Heylin War?

Kimiko knew the guys don't know about her plight. She's been so careful these past number of years. She never once let on that she planned to leave. Sure, they all thought that she might not take the Vow because she was a girl or because she had to leave behind all the technology that she loves so much. But the real reason why she might not do it, well, it kept changing. First it was because she thought taking such a vow was stupid, even if she didn't like anyone, she would always like having a choice. Then Chase Young came into the picture.

She had stayed at the Temple for nearly 2 years and was still intending on leaving when she was 20, when he showed up one day, Dojo in tow. The whole day, she struggled with keeping certain thoughts in the back of her mind until she was alone. And when he turned into some sort of Godzilla, she was extra glad that she kept those thoughts away. The usual rule seemed to be that if you could turn into an animal, you also gained superhuman senses, and she _so_ didn't want the handsome evil-doer to know that she might have been crushing on him. _Might_. A very _big_ might.

When she spoke with Keiko later on about "the smoking hot older guy that's been hanging around recently," she made sure she was alone, and she made sure she spoke softly. No one could know. This threw a major wrench in her plans, as she told her dear friend over the phone. She was contemplating staying, just so she could keep seeing him. For about a month, she had been fully willing to take the Vow right then and there just so she could permanently have what was possibly the best eye candy in the world.

Then the trouble with Dyris happened and she was rather rudely reminded why staying wouldn't be in her best interest. She wasn't appreciated here. Yeah, they recognized she was a girl, but they did it in the wrong way. Omi would constantly belittle her thanks to that Ancient Guide to Women that he swore by. Clay would usually ignore her, but he would also never seriously fight her and often seemed to look down on her. Sure, he was nice about it, but she thought that just made it worse. And then there's Raimundo! Chasing skirts every which way, and only really realizing she's a girl when it might suit him. Like when he found out exactly what family she comes from.

She was only paid attention to when it suited the guy paying attention to her. And she didn't like that. Until Chase came along, the only one that constantly realized she was a girl and didn't put her down for it was Jack Spicer. But he was creepy, so she spurned his affections for her.

Kimiko paused her train of thoughts for a moment to ask the guys if they could try something out. A kind of round robin match against her. She claimed she wanted to see how long she could last if they all took a turn fighting her before all attacking at once. They quickly agreed to it. In reality, she wanted to show off a little more for her admirer. And she knew he was there for her. She remembered the alternate universe quite well. Good Chase was her best friend there, and in secret, he was also the one that claimed her heart. Even though he couldn't do anything with it besides keep it.

He had taken the Vow. And she hadn't yet. A Xiaolin monk's word was his bond. He told her so when she one day pulled him under the Shroud of Shadows and demanded he stop playing around with her and just decide if he wanted her or not. After that tearful event, she stayed away from him for a few days while the alternate her rethought her life. She eventually asked him why such a vow had to be taken and why it had to be kept so badly. He explained, that because he was more or less immortal, along with anyone else that reached the level of Master Dragon, it wouldn't be fair to take a spouse or have children.

They wouldn't be immortal unless they also trained to be Master Dragons. And until Kimiko joined, there had been no female monks at the temple. Nor were there allowed to be any for quite some time. Then he spoke a bit more on how he didn't want to influence her choice on taking the Vow. Especially since, their situation was unprecedented, and bringing the matter to the Masters could very well make things worse for them. He asked for her forgiveness, and then he left the Temple for a number of weeks.

He only returned when Master Fung of that universe became trapped in the Ying Yang world. And during the next year or so, the Kimiko and Chase of that universe trained together to the point where they always knew where the other person was at any given point in time. They weren't able to act on their feelings for each other. So they aimed to never be far from each other. By the time Omi from this universe told them about his activities with the Sands of Time, they could almost read each other's mind. And when Good Chase took the Lao Mang Long soup from her, she was able to read one thought of his that he had never said out loud in all her years there.

_I'm sorry, but know that I love you, Kimiko._

She had been so surprised that she didn't hold as tight a grip on the soup as she should have. He sacrificed himself then. And it turns out that that connection they had, carried over to this universe. Although, based on his lack of response to her loud thoughts whenever he was nearby, she assumed it must have been one-sided. And in fact, she knew there was a chance that only she and her friends remembered the alternate universe. Guan, Wuya, and Hannibal acted like that was the case. The only one that showed that he knew what happened was Jack.

Although she figured it might have been because Good Jack had been right up next to them when the spatial collision happened. She could always go ask the evil boy genius about that. They did have a date of sorts coming up. Really it was just Jack's birthday and he swore that if she came to his party, he wouldn't do any evil for three days. He claimed he didn't want to be left alone with Katnappe since his mom was hosting the party, so he couldn't invite any of his usual evil friends unless they already knew how to act in high society.

Suddenly her thoughts come to another halt as Chase's presence suddenly fades away. His disappearance distracts her just enough that she gets hit by the full effect of Clay's little earthquake attack. She sighs heavily and begs reprieve from the match, claiming exhaustion. As she walks away to the showers, she palms the PDA she always has on her. She normally has it enhanced with the Mind Reader Conch and Eye of Dashi. She hasn't checked in on the Heylin side in a while. And she hasn't used it on Chase in even longer, too afraid of what she might find, and who might be overhearing.

But the boys will be busy finishing with training…and they won't come to the showers for at least another hour, she'd be perfectly alone. Every monk at the Temple stays away from the showers when she's in them. And the boys normally snoop in her room when she's showering. The showers would be loud…loud enough to drown out the sounds from her PDA, maybe?

Kimiko hesitated, but soon found herself turning on both the shower and her PDA, and not standing under the shower. She nibbled on her lower lip as she browsed through the mindscape, using just the Mind Reader Conch, until she found Chase. She breathed a sigh of relief, he hadn't completely left the compound, he was just out of her normal range, but not out of range of the conch. So there would be no giant pillar of light showing where she is or telling people what she was doing instead of showering.

She concentrated on his mind and discovers that he's in the temple library and looking for something. She scowled at the thought of him planning another attack on the temple using their secret knowledge. Then his jumbled thoughts suddenly become clear enough for her to understand them.

_I know it was last…here, somewhere. Only Xiaolin magic can create life, last I checked. So it has to be here somewhere. Would it kill those monks to keep a record of their scrolls? Or clean up at least once a century?_

Though she giggled a bit at the quip about cleaning, her own thoughts focus on the fact that he apparently wants to create life. She didn't know such a thing was possible. Hell, she didn't even realize the temple kept scrolls on anything magical besides the Shen Gong Wu. And if Chase somehow used a spell to create a mini-him…well, that would be terrifying. For the next few minutes, his thoughts were full of him asking himself if a scroll will have the spell before he scowled and put it back on shelf when it turned out to not be the scroll he was looking for.

Then he found it. He grinned widely and even danced a little. His thoughts were a frenzy again and he held the scroll close as his eyes glimmered in merriment. He whispered, but since it was also his loudest thought, she heard him, even as he lovingly stroked the scroll with the hanzi for Life, and another for Forbidden, emblazoned on the seal keeping it shut.

"Kimiko…I found my way to get over you. She'll only be a shadow compared to you, a flicker compared to your flame, but it's the only way." He fully disappeared from the temple grounds then, leaving Kimiko in shock as she turned off the PDA and mechanically went through the motions of showering.

He was trying to get over her…which meant he liked her…and she had been ready to take the Vow just so she would never have to not see him. But he was going to create a girlfriend for himself to get over her! She'd have to see the girl during every showdown-since she knew Chase would never allow a lover of his to be unable to defend herself-and she would have to pretend she didn't know why the girl was created. She'd have to pretend she wasn't looking at her…replacement!

Would this…this…_flicker_ look like her? Act like her? Would Chase try to make her as close to the original as possible? No, no, he wouldn't. He's smarter than that, and he was trying to get over her, so he'd probably try and make the girl look as different as possible at the very least.

Could she handle that? Seeing the girl he would create, by his side like she _so_ wished she could be? No…no, it would be too hard, she should leave. The instant she sees the girl, she'll go to Master Fung and tell him that she's refusing the Vow. He'll ask why, oh, of course he would, but Kimiko just doesn't believe she could handle it. Especially if she sees this…_shadow_ of herself sidling up next to Chase with hearts in her eyes.

No, her heart wouldn't be able to take that kind of pain. So she'll leave, go back to Tokyo, fix her relationship with her father, make new friends, check in with Rai, Clay, and Omi from time to time, but otherwise leave the Xiaolin-Heylin War behind forever.

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**AN:/** If you liked it, feel free to review, if you didn't like it, feel free to leave, if you are too lazy to review or login, then please, refresh the page a couple times so the hit counter goes up. ^_^

**Review Replies: (Note, multiple people with the same name)**

Guest - It _is_ quite curious that such a person would wear the symbol of balance, isn't it?

Elizabeth - As for your first question…this chapter answered it, huh? And who doesn't like Chase and Kimiko? They're just so…perfect~! As for the rest of your questions, woah, where do I even begin, uhm right now the answers, in order, are: spoilers, that sounds brilliant, he really should, and are you reading my mind because I mention her blood a lot in ch3 which was originally going to be ch2 until I read the latest reviews.

Guest - One, any chance you can use some random name when you review as a guest, there are many guests after all. Two, you have excellent ideas, and I wish I could answer them properly and fangirl and theorize with you, but right now, I don't even know where this story is going. At the moment, I am kinda leaning towards the transference theory since that was one of my first thoughts when I started watching Chronicles and saw how they interacted. But you never know, it might change. And part of this chapter was only written the way it was because I remembered your review while I was typing.

Tortua - How do you know she isn't already in love? ;P Oh, and one more thing. Since you reviewed as a Guest on Thank You, a one-shot (that I have since expanded (kinda) into a multi-chapter story surrounding Chase, I wasn't able to reply to you and tell you my plans of more Chamiko. Bet ya were happy to see this little thing, huh?

Litterry - I'm working on it :)


	3. Chapter 3: Magic

**AN:/** I shall start this author's note by saying how disappointed I am in myself. This chapter, without AN's or Review Replies, is _exactly_ two thousand, two hundred, and twenty ONE words. 2,221. That last of one more word is bugging me very much. I have half a mind to search through this piece and either take away words to make it less nice, or adding a single word somewhere to make it perfect. Second, I'd like to say I'm not entirely please about the beginning of this, but I couldn't figure out how to change it to suit the end better. A reminder, if you are a **Guest/Anonymous Reviewer**, I answer your reviews at the end of every chapter since most of you end up saying some really awesome things and asking the best questions, so I feel obliged to answer you properly.

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"This is not what I remember the spell being…" Chase murmurs as he looks over the spell he only barely remembered skimming centuries ago. If he had remembered before, that it was an elaborate ritual called Adam's Second Wife, he's certain he wouldn't have decided to use magic to make a child to fill the void in his heart and his palace.

Reading through every sentence twice, the Heylin monk frowns. Use of the potion would create a golem to serve him, yes. But the ritual is apparently intended for After-Apocalypse use only. When the user is the only person left in the world and needs to repopulate. He should have guessed from the name. Chase may not have the stories of the Abrahamic religions memorized, but he knew the story of Lilith, Adam's First Wife, who was so independent that she ended up leaving the Garden of Eden for the devil. And he knew the story of Eve, Adam's Second Wife, who was so subservient and curious that she was the definition of a fool.

He couldn't use this spell! He would practically be creating a sex slave. Sure, the female-clone would serve him, but she would also keep trying to _service_ him. He wants a daughter not a concubine. It would take him at least a month to rework the very nature of the spell to his satisfaction. And the consequences of doing that…he shudders at the thought. He had to find another way. Perhaps he could create his own spell from scratch?

Well…after tearing apart this spell to find out why it works. But Chase isn't called a Heylin Master for nothing. Magic is a specialty of his…after martial arts, of course. He could do this. And it would be _entirely_ worth it.

Okay, how to start this; he'd need DNA samples from her, wouldn't he?

Chase scratches his chin idly, trying to recall if he had anything of hers tucked away somewhere in his citadel. He knew he couldn't just grab a few of the cut strands of hair that would surely still be on the temple grounds. He may not be an expert in genetic cloning with either magic or modern science, but he knew enough to know that his best bet for making this child, would be to get a few of her eggs. Keep things as natural as possible. But he also knew the chances of that happening were slimmer than her tiny waist and wrists.

There was DNA in hair as long as it still had that bulb at the end, the follicle, right? He thinks he remembers reading that in the Biology textbook he paged through a few years back. He could steal into her room when she wasn't around and take a few strands from her hairbrush. That could work!

If he wasn't so certain that he would easily be found out that way. Perhaps Chase could somehow get ahold of her saliva? That was also mentioned in the book. He could find her favorite teacup and-no, no, that wouldn't even come close to working. The only way that could work is if she spit in his face and he somehow kept the spit contained and free from dirt while he went home.

And he _knew_ that if he had a bit of skin he could do it, but the very thought of having a piece of her skin when it _wasn't_ on her body, was making his stomach churn. Hmm, blood! Yes, blood is the solution. Blood has always been used in magic for such things. And because they were on opposite sides, Kimiko spilling blood was likely to happen on a daily basis. And if he went home, covered in her blood, the only thought anyone would have, was when he would wash it off and why he had to be so vicious that day. Okay…maybe they wouldn't wonder about his bathing habits.

Chase shivers a bit at the thought of her blood. He can't help it. He knows he's a monster, after all why else would the very thought of spilt blood arouse him so, especially hers, so long as she's not losing too much of it and is also experiencing pleasure. Yes, blood will be the key to cracking this spell. And now that he thinks about it, he did get into a scrap with the monks a few days ago. A scrap which ended with a few inches of her red robe, covered in her blood and in his claws. It would be dry by now, but he could use it for initial testing.

With these thoughts in mind, he pulls up a notebook and pencil, and begins to dismantle this ancient ritual known as Adam's Second Wife. He could see the reason behind using things like lavender for devotion, or bees for industry, and even eagle claws for strength. But so far, he was thinking the inclusion of carnations were unnecessary. And he _hopes_ that the duck feet is included for taste and not for it's meaning of fertility. Either way, he marks that on his list of things to not include unless absolutely necessary.

With a frown, Chase also double-crosses out pomegranates despite their delicious taste. He won't risk anything when it comes to this. Everything needs to be perfect, and it can't resemble the original spell's purposes at all minus the fact that it will be used to create new life where there was only one.

He crosses out a few more things, and makes changes where he can. By the end of the day, he has the recipe for his first test potion, and he's reworking a few of the spell words and taking out any mentions of the potion being used to create a spouse. Every time he sees the word wife, he writes in the word daughter. He prays to all the gods he's ever heard about in his travels around the world, that this initial test will be all he needs to do.

After a week of hasty brewing, he begins to recite the spell over the potion. It seems to be working, so he repeats the spell as he adds the final two ingredients, Kimiko's dried blood, and his own. The potion becomes violent immediately. It turns an angry shade of red and bubbles over the side of the cauldron. Realizing it's about to blow, Chase bellows for his cats to run just as he does the same. He's not far when it finally blows up, and some of the cats are also caught in the exploded remains of the potion. When he comes to, he sees that his kitchen needs to be replaced, and he's lost over half of his supply of Lao Mang Long soup cans.

With a heavy groan, he admits temporary defeat. Ordering his cats to start cleaning up, he realizes something is different about the ones caught in the blast with him. That spark of intelligence they normally had, denoting their previous lives as humans, has dulled. He hopes it's only temporary and sends all the "ill" jungle cats to go hunting or otherwise relax until further notice.

Chase calls for his more magically-inclined feline slaves before sitting back down at a table with all his notes on re-working the ritual. It was obvious he would need another pair of eyes, especially since now someone would have to be brewing more of his soup, and another would have to research what happened to the other cats, all while he worked on finishing this golem ritual as quickly as possible. He takes Rosella with him to his library to figure out what went wrong. She had been an untrained psychic and former apprentice Dragon of Wind when he took her in a few hundred years ago, and she had an affinity for all magic, not just Heylin or Xiaolin. She might catch something he overlooked while making the first test recipe and spell.

A month and a half passes before the recipe is perfected…well, perfected enough to Chase's satisfaction. He _would_ have to actually lose his rib, there was no way around that, and it had been tested on some of his jungle cats that never recovered from their loss of intelligence. Any cat hit with the remnants of his previous failed potions, would lose their ability to change forms, and their memories of ever having been human. At least, that's what he found out when he had his First General Zwehei question the infirmed slaves. They were simply big cats now, that only knew that they served him until their death.

And in that time, Chase also lost many sections of his citadel. To the point where he stopped ordering his cats to clean up the mess, and to start residing in one of his extra caves he normally keeps to throw off any enemies that enter his land. Over his long life, he would often get bored and get started on another cave system, another home. They all had relatively the same skull-shaped entrance, but none were as regal in appearance as his palace. And now his palace had to be repaired.

As he moves into one of his many extra caves, he goes over his calculations with Rosella, he complains to Despoina about the necessity of keeping his soup out in the open now since the new cave had no hidey holes for his canned soup, and he orders Zwehei to take command of the cats who still knew their past, and to fix up his citadel and put it back into perfect condition within the year. He can no longer fully trust the cats of his that no longer had their full mind, so he keeps those ones close to him. A few days later, he goes through the ritual.

It was one of the first times he had returned to his True Form in months, but it was necessary for the potion to work with…minimal pain, and the appropriate characteristics to be given to the child that would be born within moments. When the rib he pulled out transforms into a tiny female sitting in a shell, he puts it down on the ground to watch. As the golem begins to grow, he can see the hints of his little empress in the child. A similar beauty mark here, a dimple there. Blue-black hair at first, instead of Chase's green-black hair, that eventually turns solely blue, more of a cyan. Curvature of her chin and jaw.

He can see the subtle hints of Kimiko in his new daughter, and he's grateful for them. But he's even more grateful that they aren't too obvious. Overall, the apparently teenage golem shares traits of his. Nose and eye shape are the most notable at the moment. But then the golem opens her eyes and grins. Her eyes are reptilian like his, though green, as is the inside of her mouth from what he can see. He assumes it's a side-effect of including a few drops of the Lao Mang Long soup since the shades of green are similar. And though the hints of fangs show how similar her grin is to his own, he can recognizes a sort of…mischievousness that his little fire dragon was more well-known for when the situation called for it.

For a moment, he realizes that he forgot about the most important part of this ritual. The Naming. Until he named her, she wouldn't be able to remember a thing he taught her. But over the past weeks, he hadn't even thought about what to call her. He orders her to entertain herself while he watches her. Perhaps he could figure out a suitable name while watching her?

_Aiko. It could mean both Indigo Child and Love Child depending on the kanji…but therein lies the problem, I can't use a Japanese name in case the monks suddenly become smart._ His eyes follow the curious teenager as she pets all of the jungle cats she can at the same time.

_Qing, dark blue. A common Chinese name for girls, but will I really name her by her characteristics like a pet?_ He frowns heavily, hardly believing how close he was to doing that.

_Lihwa, a princess to match her mother's empress._ That thought stays in his mind longer than the other names. But he eventually throws it out as he decides he can't use a Chinese name either. The golem will be introduced as his apprentice, not his daughter. Besides, he'd rather save that name for the off-chance that on her 21st birthday, Kimiko burns down the Xiaolin Temple, kills all her friends, and joins the Heylin side before dragging him to her bed. It was a very low-chance, but Chase liked to daydream about such scenarios from time to time.

Then he blinks and realizes his new daughter has disappeared. No longer is she playing with the cats. He looks around his lair with narrowed eyes for a good ten minutes before he finds her in a shadowy corner. She's camouflaged into the corner and torturing a rat with an apparently natural ability over the very shadows. His lips quirk into a smile as he realizes the perfect name.

_I did call her a shadow, after all._

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**AN:/** If you liked it, feel free to review, if you didn't like it, feel free to leave, if you are too lazy to review or login, then please, refresh the page a couple times so the hit counter goes up. ^_^

**Review Replies: (Note, I am assuming the the Elizabeth is the same person)**

Bluedragons5 - So far it does seem like I'm continuing :P

Guest - Something to remind her? I suppose, in a way she does, but definitely not something as obvious as a discarded pauldron or a statue that the boys could find whenever they snoop in her room.

Lili Lina - Thank you for the kind words~! I'll try to keep it "beautifully" written :)

Elizabeth - First….woah….951 word review….and then a second one when you caught something that I was wondering if anyone caught. O_O Oh, how am I supposed to respond to such praise? Hmm, well, to start, pobrecita indeed. Poor little empress- did you know that's what Kimiko's name means? And my brother and I actually have many theories about Shadow and the way she acts, one of our theories is that she is the uninhibited part of Chase's mind and actually acts the way Chase would act if he could. It doesn't fully explain why she's so flirty, so that won't be her role in this particular story. And just the image you've painted, of Shadow and Chase being all grumpy with each other and Kimiko being the mediator has had me laughing for days now. You should consider writing that up fully and posting it. :) And trust me, I know all about Oceanbreeze7 and hir story Reciprocation, zie reviews my It Was A Mistake story and I review Reciprocation and we chat and generally get along.

Ping Pong and Shadow? I tell ya, that is a ship I never even thought about shipping or anti-shipping until you mentioned it. Now I'm curious, and you should never make a writer curious, you never know what to expect afterwards. And while Bean will likely play at the very least a small part in this, the situation you painted wouldn't work…as you know now thanks to this chapter. Part of it will happen eventually, yes, but probably not in the way you'd expect. And only Sailors Mars and Jupiter? I think we can throw some Sailor Venus in that mix to represent Kimiko, with some Sailor Mercury for the smarts, heck, throw the whole team in there! And yes, that confrontation will eventually happen, not those exact words, of course.

Now, as for the US you caught and wondered about. I'll say one thing on it and leave it at that. 1500 years is a very long time, are we sure he's kept his full sanity throughout the years? And as for this Tigress…I'd rather wait until she's revealed properly, but I did write a little excerpt based on the Mask of the Green Monkey episode centered in the universe I'm creating here, where Chase wonders about the supposed sister while distinctly recalling never having heard about a sister in all his years of watching the monks. And I am convinced that Chase already is some sort of guardian of the Xiaolin-Heylin balance. Why else would the world have been so different when he switched sides in the original series for an episode? I go into more detail about that in my other Xiaolin Showdown story, which I seriously need to update with the nearly finished chapter for that...


	4. Chapter 4: Oogle

**AN:/** Okay, we are now leaving the minds of only Chase and/or Kimiko, to move onto a more Third-Person, semi-omniscent not centering on any one character. I'll eventually go back to the minds/Point of Views of Chase and Kimiko, but for now, this suits my storytelling needs. Also, thanks to losing a bet, there will be a short 100-word Chase/Shadow drabble at the end of this that WILL NOT relate to the story in any way...I think.

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"Hey, Jack?" She walked up to him with a cup of fruit punch in hand. The boy genius's sullen face at being forced to be next to his friend and rival Katnappe, suddenly brightened up. He knew inviting Kimiko was a good idea, and not only because it turned out they knew the same people in high society and thought pretty much the same thing about them.

"Yesss, Kimiko? Hey, the punch any good? I hope my mom didn't spike it yet."

She sipped at the drink. Kimiko had seen Jack's mother spike the bowl barely a minute after she grabbed her cup, so she was savoring each sip while she could. "Yeah, it's pretty good, I'll have to get the recipe later. Anyway, I was wondering why you didn't just invite Chase? I could have sworn I saw him once or twice at a charity function over the years. Wouldn't your mom die of approval when you introduced him as a…you guys are friends, right?"

Jack's elation drooped. "Well, he is occasionally seen in public and not all Heylin-y. That's how my grandma met him." His eyes strayed to Grandma Spicer, as does Kimiko's. The old woman was Jack's inspiration to being evil. Apparently her bedtime stories to him, involved her evil adventures in her youth, and more than enough of the stories had Chase. Kimiko had learned tonight just why Jack had always been such a fanboy of Chase Young, and she couldn't blame him. The way the stories were told, she's certain even Raimundo would be having trouble not falling in love with the idea of Chase Young.

"But he sent a reply saying he was super busy doing evil and stuff. So I went down to his citadel like I usually do, to try to convince him to come, and he wasn't there. Some of his cats were there, sure, but most of them were in their human forms and cleaning up what seemed like the aftermath of a huge battle. Or an explosion."

"Wait…you're telling me that Chase…moved or something?"

"Yeah, that's what it looked like."

"Why would he do that? And who could have done that to his citadel? I thought everyone on both sides more or less agreed that thrashing that place was a one-way ticket to getting whooped by anyone that found out."

"Yeah, it is, I mentioned it on one of my evil forums and now a bunch of the Heylin are looking at everyone with suspicion. Until Chase gets on and says the culprit's been found, everyone's gonna be a bit jumpy."

"Woah…that's…woah." Kimiko trailed off as she walked with Jack to the punch-bowl. Before he served himself, she stopped his arm. "Wait, is it okay for you to have alcohol? You said you hoped your mom hadn't spiked it, and I could have sworn I saw her standing here for a while without leaving with a cup."

Jack grinned and finished pouring himself a cup of punch, before he gestured a short distance away, to short-haired blonde giggling into her cup with another small group of girls, also with their own clear cups of punch. "It's not that it's bad for me, I just didn't want to be the first one drunk." Kimiko looked at the girl she normally called Katnappe, but that she knew was really named Ashley. She didn't bother suppressing her grin, instead she quickly finished of cup of un-spiked punch, before reaching for a refill.

An hour later, most of the party has descended into drunken revelry. Jack and Kimiko having started a game of Never Have I Ever after their first drinks, and most of the birthday party attendees were happy to join in when it applied to them. At first, the goal had been to not drink with every statement, then they switched it so that the point was to get even more drunk.

Jack snapped his fingers when he thought of a particularly good one. "Never have I ever oogled Chase Young! Hah!" Thinking he won the round since Kimiko was a Xiaolin monk and therefore automatically a goody-goodie, he was immensely surprised when the Dragon of Fire drained her glass alongside him. As did half the room. Someone quickly asked who everyone else drank to, and Grandma Spicer was quick to pull out a wallet full of pictures of the man in question. The rest of the room, men and women included, drain their glasses at the sight of some of the pictures.

Curious, Kimiko went to the old woman's side and looked at the photos. Her eyes widened when she saw one she particularly remembered happening not too long ago. "Hey! This is during that big battle between both sides right after Rai became Shoku. That peeping tom!"

Jack grabbed the picture from her hand and his mouth dropped. The photo showed Chase fighting Kimiko. The front of her robes were a bit too torn from the battle and ended up showing the tops of her breasts. Chase seemed to be focusing on the battle, until you looked closer and realized his eyes were focused on her bust. "What? That is _sooooo_ not fair. Why can't he show me attention like that? I'm his biggest fan! I worship the ground he walks on!"

"Next time I see that bastard, I am _sooo_ going to kill him. You can't just never show interest in a girl and then blatantly stare at her during battle, there's gotta be some sort of rule about that, right?"

"Hey, hey, Kim, can I borrow your boobs? If I wear them, he'll stop calling me a worm, right?"

"Maybe, but you can't have my boobs, go borrow Ashley's, or Wuya's."

"But he hates Wuya, if I borrowed hers, he'd probably feed me to his cats."

"Aww, poor Jackie, don't worry, I'll get revenge on Chase for staring at me, and then I'll make sure he at least gives you a hello."

While the boy genius and gamer girl planned revenge on Chase for his apparent crimes and lack of manners, Mrs. Spicer asked her mother-in-law how she even got such a picture. The elderly woman grinned as she pocketed the pictures once more, "you don't really think our Jackie is the only evil genius in the family, do you? Why else do you think he was suddenly interested in robotics and engineering?"

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**AN:/** If you liked it, feel free to review, if you didn't like it, feel free to leave, if you are too lazy to review or login, then please, refresh the page a couple times so the hit counter goes up. ^_^

**100-Word Chase/Shadow Drabble:**

All she knows, is that she serves this man. In the back of her mind, she knows he's attractive, and she sometimes ponders it. But she doesn't know what to do about it. Then she was sent to watch the monks. She learned about something called flirting then.

It was something you did to show your interest in a person. And she was interested in her master, so she did as she learned. In return, he would grace her with little smiles, that she dared think were full of affection for her. She only hopes, she's not imagining it all.

**Review Replies:**

Tortua - Well, we all hope they end up together. :)

Lili Lina - I can't tell if that's happy screaming or scared screaming...

Guest - You've hit the nail on the head about where I'm making her flirtatious attitude come from! And I do believe I may have read that fic you've referencing

Elizabeth - To start, ehh, well, with my current headcanon about who Tigress could really be if not Kimiko's sister, a name change could be in the works for Shadow. But I'm still not sure if I'll use this headcanon in my story. And I'd like to go deeper into Kimiko's past, it's technically necessary, I just need to sort out which version of her past I'm favoring for this story. As for Ping-Pong, until I can sort out exactly _why_ XC isn't using an elemental system I'm familiar with (most have the fifth element as Aether when Wind is included, and Metal when Wood takes the place of Wind,) I'm gonna stick with the general consensus of "A Wizard Did It" and not make any major assumptions. And yes, we will eventually have a Shadow and/or a Ping Pong POV. Jack will _definitely_ be one of the first people to figure out Kimiko's connection to Shadow and Chase, whether or not he'll be the only one is another question entirely. Yeah, the US in ch1 was more than likely a royal we since he's an arrogant man, kinda like Sesshou's whole "This Sesshoumaru" in Inuyasha.

Hmm, if I were to pull a Kyoshi Island on the monks, then that would give me an excuse to pull out one of my Jungle Cat OCs, Despoina, a former Amazon. By Sun Goddess, you mean Amaterasu, ne? Most royal families are said to be descended from some sort of god in some mythology. That, or they're hand-picked by their god. But I'm not sure which Emperor's palace they were in, in the Tangled Web episode, Chinese or Japanese. And I have this whole big thing on the specifics of the Vow written, but you're not gonna see that until the Temple is destroyed. So save your questions for then. And no, when Willow becomes Chase, she won't be able to sense him. That sort of sense comes only after a long time of training closely with someone. If she concentrated, she would also notice she can sense her friends. Call it...a sort of Tiger Instincts, and all the monks have it to a degree. Hope you don't mind, but I'm just gonna stear the conversation away from the talk of lifemates, I could rant for hours about that subject and ways it could apply to my lovely ships. But yeah, Wuya isn't the first to try to seduce him. He's a handsome and powerful man. You'll read about Tigress when I get there, maybe earlier.

Juya, as I believe the Jack/Wuya ship is called, is a ship that I both do and don't ship. At times it makes sense, I can see the chemistry, but then something happens and instead I see them acting like a family instead of a couple. I'm not entirely certain, but I think there's a phenomenon known as Best Friends Forever. Two people are so close that sometimes you could swear they were dating, but all they ever acknowledge is a deep-seated kinship. I think that's the relationship they have. Honestly, it could become anything, and if the Jack in this story decides he wants Wuya, then I'll let it happen, but as of now, they're like...siblings and mother and son at the same time. Oh! And one more thing...stop picking at my brain! You'll reveal my secret plan before I finish it at this rate XD


	5. Chapter 5: Kirei

**AN:/** Annnd back to Chase's POV with a little show of Shadow. You know, I've noticed a little pattern developing, every other chapter features Chase, interesting, huh? And personally, I gave this chapter a name, unlike the other ones. I call it "Kirei," which is Japanese romaji for "pretty." And which I almost typed instead of the Chinese pinyin. Ugh, you know what I hate? Knowing Japanese, then trying to learn Chinese, and getting all the letters all mixed up. It is so freaking annoying! So, uhh, for anyone that celebrates, Happy Thanksgiving, hope the person making the turkey or doesn't forget to baste it, and that the person cooking the ham doesn't forget to pull off the thin plastic before sticking it with cloves and tossing it in the oven. And I hope your cousin's/sister's/brother's/parent's homemade pie actually tastes good. Be thankful if it does. And maybe be thankful I updated the day before the big holiday?

**Small Edit:** I've decided to name all the chapters with a single word, nothing fancy. In order, the new title names are: Impossible, Flicker, Magic, Oogle, and Kirei. From this moment on, all chapters will have similar names. You can look for chapter spoilers by reading the names, but sometimes they will be in other languages, I know many and tend to use each one randomly.

* * *

It's one thing to know you can't have her. It's entirely another thing to come out of hiding for the past month and a half and see the girl you wanted, in the arms of another.

Chase growls he watches that insolent worm cozy up next to the Dragon of Fire. Not to long ago, he had finished teaching Shadow a few things to keep her busy while he caught up on what was going on in the outside world. By habit, he checked on the monks first and learned that the Tohomiko heiress at a party. He had resisted the urge to immediately check on her, and instead used his Scrying Pool to look for the prominent members of the Heylin side of the War. That was when he saw the image of Spicer chatting up Kimiko, both flushed red and with drinks in hand.

His claws dig into the stone basin and for a moment, he wishes he still had his All-Seeing Eye instead. Because he is sorely tempted to jump into the pool of water and transport himself to Spicer's home, before tearing them away from each other. His eyes begin to twitch when it becomes obvious that the red cheeks are a sign of the two being drunk. He could have sworn another of the rules of the Xiaolin Temple was to not consume more than a cup of alcohol a day. Obviously, Kimiko is more of rule-breaker than he originally realized.

That thought makes him smirk for a second before he hears Jack start a drinking game. He facepalms and groans, but otherwise remains stiffly standing before the Scrying Pool. Shadow should be able to entertain herself until this game is over. The young dragon should be sufficiently drunk by then to need a ride home. And he could show up, pretend he didn't realize the party was over, and escort her safely back to the temple and away from any curious hands. Chase distinctly remembers receiving two invitations to the young Spicer's birthday party. One from the boy in question, and one from the Spicer matriarch.

A half hour passes before anything particularly interesting is said by the two young adults. Chase discovers that the boy genius and dragon of fire engage in little tech wars whenever there's a lull in the War. Apparently, they both create viruses and send those viruses to each other's systems. He also learns that during the time Jack spent as a Xiaolin monk when Chase had been in the market for an apprentice, Jack had nabbed one of Kimiko's panties, and she still never figured it out. The Heylin Dragon makes a mental note to somehow retrieve the pair or send her in the right direction, should she not remember the confession in the morning. By then, Shadow joins him in watching, and he can't bring himself to send her away.

_Might as well let her see her mother when she's not fighting_, he thinks, watching out of the corner of his eye as the golem tilts her head curiously at the image in the pool. He hasn't instructed her in any magic yet, so he knows she has questions she's just dying to ask. He can practically hear the questions as they bounce around in her head, and he entertains the thought that he wouldn't have to work to instill a telepathic connection with her. Apparently it was included in the potion. He just needs to fine-tune it.

Shadow frowns in his direction as she tries to get her questions out in the open, in actual words instead of the hissing she's been doing since her birth. He frowns, remembering another side-effect of apparently adding drops of his soup into the potion that made her. She's unable to speak in any human language at the moment, he'll have to work on her language skills later, but for now, he uses a hand to make her face him fully, before hissing a reply to her question, in the draconian language she speaks.

"The black-haired woman is Kimiko, Dragon of Fire at the Xiaolin Temple. I aim to turn her or one of her friends to our side. The red-headed male with markings under his eyes is Jack Spicer, a sniveling worm of an evil genius. He's unfortunately on our side, the Heylin side. They are…next to each other because of a game and a temporary truce that will end when the night does."

To Chase, she seems satisfied with his answer as she immediately turns back to watching. They both watch in relative silence on their end, even though Shadow doesn't yet fully understand what was going on. The game continues, and the sudden vulgar words spoken on the other end make Chase glad his daughter doesn't fully understand human speech yet. She won't be repeating any of the words. When Spicer loudly proclaims that he's "oogled" Chase before, he tries not to take too seriously the fact that Kimiko drinks to that statement, after all, the rest of the party goers also drink to it when the Spicer matriarch, Aislin Spicer provides pictures of himself for everyone that didn't know his identity.

He can hear a few of the people calling him handsome, and one or two others telling their friends that "pretty men" like Chase are always gay. But he doesn't pay too much attention to any words other than Spicer's and Kimiko's, until he hears a few words closer to home. He blinks before glancing sidelong at Shadow. She's slowly mouthing a word, sounding it out carefully. He hisses at her, asking her what she's saying.

She gains determination then, and faces him as she finally, after a full day of only hissing, says her first words in Chinese. "Shuàigē. Kimiko. Shuàigē."

Chase can't help the small smile that graces his face at her words. He looks back at the subject of interest for his daughter and mentally agrees with what he assumes she was trying to say, before correcting her in a few hisses interrupted by proper Chinese. "Yes, she is pretty, but shuàigē is what you call a man, like me, who is handsome. Měinǚ is what you call a beautiful girl, like Kimiko. That, or piàoliang in general."

Shadow is obviously chastised by the correction, and her determination deflates. But she continues to mutter the words under her breath, this time, correctly. Chase lets his attention be drawn back to Spicer's party, and becomes faintly upset when he notices Aislin Spicer drag the drunk Kimiko away and put her to bed. But he knows it's probably best that his old friend has apparently recognized his attraction for the young woman, and is watching over her when he can't for whatever reason. He just hopes the elderly woman has finally kicked the habit of being a loudmouth and won't be telling anyone.

After a moment's hesitation, where he watches the young monk slip into a deep sleep, he waves his hand at the Scrying Pool, causing the image to fade away. "Come, Shadow, let's work on your Chinese."

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**AN:/** If you liked it, feel free to review, if you didn't like it, feel free to leave, if you are too lazy to review or login, then please, refresh the page a couple times so the hit counter goes up. ^_^

**Review Replies:**

Guest - I shall!

Elizabeth - Yeah…about Granny Spicer, at this point in time, she will make a (proper) appearance where Chase is happy to see her yet mentions how she's supposedly in retirement. She even has a name. However, there's always the chance that when I actually write the chapter, it will turn out nothing like I planned. Heck, I planned the previous chapter to have Kimiko talk about the Vow while drunk, but she didn' alternative was for Jack to ask her about it since it was mentioned in passing to him, but he never spoke up either! Stupid tight-lipped muses…. And about the drabble, I wrote that because I lost a bet, and the original intention was that it would be a crazy thing that could never be apart of my stories, but then I wrote it and…yeah, I can see it happening even in the actual series.

And yes, Aether, Void, Heaven, Sky, Ether, Mind, Human, Life, Love, so many different possible names for the Fifth Element. (I swear to Chase, someone reading this better have gotten that not so subtle reference right there.) And, heh, funny you mention Hades and Persephone XD That was the exact reason I mentioned him double crossing out pomegranates in the third chapter. I've already written the scene where Jack figures it out, but I haven't dated it in the timeline yet. So far, it seems to be around the time of Laws of Nature, but I can also see it happening much later. Just know that for at least 12 episodes worth of chapters, Jack will be clueless.

Ehh, I don't remember much about X-men, it's been a while since I thought about that fandom. And Ping's POV will only come after he's been introduced, which is still a few months away in-story, so, sorry… Maybe I'll give you some Childish Shadow POV? Oh yes, I've seen Jburke's picture of Kimi-Cat, I've also seen the picture where zie compares the real one to her fanon one and has her Snow Leopard Kimi-Cat approve of leucistic lioness Kimi-Cat…at least I think hir design is a Snow Leopard… But no, I will not use hir design simply for the fact that the design is hir's.

And you would be speaking about episode 2 of season 1 of Xiaolin Showdown, name, Like a Rock!, which was a Clay-centric episode. Yes, I think we all miss Kimiko's mischievousness, I say it now, there need to be more stories of that. Just Kim being mischievous and sly. And oh gods, your story ideas, I'm bent over in laughter as we speak…but I fear I must inform you, I don't know if Chamiko will live happily ever after in this story. You see, I'm relatively known on tumblr for Fluff-Angst, which means I give you happy feelings that you squee about…then I take it all away without notice or mercy. So, just a warning here, if everything seems like it's going well for Chamiko, there's a chance I'll pull the rug out from under you, break your rose-colored glasses, and hand you a few barf bags. Heheh :P


	6. Chapter 6: Baby

**AN:/** Here's the latest chapter of my story. Timeline-wise, it's set a month or three after the last chapter. I'm only saying that because it's not said in-story. Also, I am sooooo sorry for the butchered English, but as you can see by the first 4 words, this chapter is set in Shadow's Point of View. Also, some of you may have read my latest Chamiko story, "You Idiot!" which can also be called "Wait no!" Anyways...I'm refusing to finish that one until I upload the next chapter(s) of It Was A Mistake, so you guys better get to reading You Idiot before I update again :D Oh...and one thing I'll say about the Chronicles episode...at least Chase has a new power?

* * *

_Pretty…_

The "teenage" girl watches her master go through what seems like a dance to her inexperienced eyes. She knows she shouldn't be watching him. He ordered her to study this giant book that he called an in-sick-low-peed-ya. It's a difficult word for her, but Chase said that if she read the book from cover to cover, then he would start teaching her how to fight. Of course, he called it martial arts, and said he would practice some…tie-chee while she studied.

But she's so distracted by his dancing! Shadow can't understand how he could expect her to pay attention to a book when he was doing that. She tries, though.

She manages to keep slowly reading, absorbing all the information the magical book tells her. She manages to get to the strange word "beta carotene" before her eyes stray back to her master and he subtly puts aside the book in favor of watching him dance. He's turned away from her as he slowly goes through the same repetitive movements. Pushing and pulling at invisible limbs, ducking under invisible enemies. She's only been staring for five minutes when he sighs heavily, his head dropping despite the fact that she knows it should remain straight.

"Obviously, I'm going to have to try a different tactic with you. Hmm, how about a little game?" Chase says as he continues with his tie-chee.

Shadow grins, she knows that word. Game was an easy word that she learned quickly. She liked games, mostly she liked playing with the big cats her master keeps, but who is she to deny that she would love to play a game with him? She doesn't tell him her answer, but he seems to know it anyway.

"I'll say a word, and you need to find the word in either the encyclopedia I gave you, or the dictionary on the chair next to you. Then you need to say a word that is similar in meaning or sound or simply related to the word somehow. Then I have to do the same, and we keep trading words until one of us can't think of anything. An example would be, if I said the word study, and you said book which is something you study from, and then I said hook, which sounds like book. The catch is that you have to know what the word you use means. Do you understand?"

Shadow quietly ponders the rules of the game, figuring they were easy enough. She nods her head in happy agreement a few times before she realizes he probably wants her to answer with words, and not her usual hisses. "Yes."

"Good." He simply replies as he continues dancing. She waits for nearly five minutes before he turns his head towards her and gives her a little smirk. She realizes that "good" is the first word of the game. She blinks and then tries to think of something similar to the word. Unable to think of something, she reaches for the book she abandoned earlier and flips through the pages, looking for anything that seemed to match. Hesitantly, she starts to fumble over a word she decides to make up and hope actually exists. "Uhh….puh….pud?"

She glances away from the book and at her master to see him raising an amused eyebrow at her. So the word doesn't exist, got it… Shadow's eyes return to the in-sick-low…encyclopedia and she notices she's reached the Sh-words. She reads through the page and stumbles over the pronunciation of one word that looks familiar to her. "Sha…o…lin. Shaolin."

The word must have meant something besides what the book was telling her, because Chase accepts the word with a short nod and then takes his turn. "Kimiko."

Remembering why Shaolin sounded familiar to her, she grins and says the first word that comes to mind. "Pretty."

Chase stops dancing mid-movement and the cave is quiet. Part of her wonders if she won the game so quickly. Another part of her wonders if she used the wrong word again. He had said she was learning English today, did English also have different words for pretty depending on who or what was being talked about?

"I think you should try a different word, a more difficult one perhaps." His shoulders are stiff, as are his words.

_But…why?_

Not quite understanding why he didn't want to accept the word she already volunteered, Shadow shrugs and the next word she says, she knows isn't a difficult one at all for her to say. "Red."

He starts his tie-chee again and it's not as much as a dance as it was before, not as…elegant she thinks is the word. "Spicer."

She grins again, she knows her next descriptor will please him. Then again, she had thought saying what she originally said about Kimiko to please him, and instead, it made him start to act funny. "Worm!"

Chase laughs, obviously beginning to relax again judging by the fact that he loses some of the stiffness to his dance. And by the smile on his face when he turns towards her again. "Germ."

Shadow frowns at that. What in the world was a germ? She looks down at the dictionary in the chair next to her and flips through those pages, trying to figure out the new word. It kind of sounds like churn, could she say that? Probably not, the example he used with words that sounded the same also had a lot of the same letters. When she finds the definition of a germ, she doesn't immediately know what to say in order to continue the game. She looks through both the encyclopedia and dictionary multiple times before she remembers the other book he gave her an hour ago. It was small and held something called rhymes, but maybe it would help.

She opens it and realizes it holds words that almost sound the same. So those were rhymes. She looks up germ and finds a few words, but one in particular catches her eye

Squirm.

She looks it up in the dictionary then, and deciding she likes the sound of it, she says it a few times in a soft voice. The game continues, but her thoughts keep returning to the new word. Squirm…that's what her master wants to make the Xiaolin monks do, isn't it? He wants to make them uncomfortable. And she'll help him. That's why she's here, that was her purpose.

If Chase's purpose is to challenge the monks and make them squirm, and hers is to help him, what was the purpose of the monks? Where do they come in?

And now that she thinks about it, didn't the encyclopedia talk about something called aging? Where babies become children, teenagers, and eventually adults. She's learning all this stuff at once, so does that make her a baby? She interrupts the game when they somehow get to the very word she was wondering about, baby. "Chase…am I a baby?"

"Babies are born. You were made. Well, babies are made as well, but you were made differently and didn't come out of your mother's womb, which is where babies are made and born." He sighs heavily and slows his words, realizing that he's not making much sense to her. "Uhh, no, you aren't a baby, at least physically. Mentally, yes, you are a baby, emotionally as well. But your body is that of a teenager. When you finally introduce yourself to the monks, they will think you are a teenager, which is why we need you to learn everything, including colloquialisms as quickly as possible. No one wants to have another Omi."

"Col…col-lee-kweh…"

"Is slang easier to say?"

"Slang, yes, slang is much easier."

"While we're on the topic…"

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**AN:/** If you liked it, feel free to review, if you didn't like it, feel free to leave, if you are too lazy to review or login, then please, refresh the page a couple times so the hit counter goes up. ^_^

Replies:

Guest - There! I updated just for you :D

Lili Lina - Uhh, well gimme a second and I'll get you my list of everyone's ages. Clay is 21, Kimiko is 20, Rai 19, Omi is 18, Jack is 21, Ping Pong when we finally meet him is 14, and Shadow appears to be 16 but is technically only a baby. So she's highly impressionable. Aww, parental fluff, yeah, obviously there will be some. As for Shadow knowing that Kimiko is her mum, as of this moment, no, but that is likely to change. Will Chamiko stop being Romeo and Juliet and start being…well, not a classic love story because those all end in tragedy? Maybe, people keep asking, so it's likely. Pfft, what does Wuya need to approve of? She has no word in this. Ahh! You've given me ideas that I want to write very, very much. But they're your ideas, so I can't :( Oh well, I order you to make an account and write your ideas that are piggybacking off of mine! :P

Elizabeth - You can't fix rose-colored glasses! They represent your childhood and where all your happiness stems from! Yes, I quite thought her "first" words were touching...and it gave me an excuse to show off my burgeoning Chinese skills. Will the next (this) chapter be in Shadow POV? Well, was it? XD Just teasing! Granny Spicer has been watching just to keep an eye on her Jackie, who she knows isn't the best at being evil or at fighting. And yeah, the mention of the tech war was kind of a nod to the actual episodes where Kimiko originally doesn't consider the virus Jack sent her, as too much of a threat. Just trying to tie things together. Ping Pong fics? Nah, then again, haven't looked for any. I'll keep that X Men episode in mind when I have the time to watch the whole thing all over again. :P And I think we can safely assume that Shadow goes back to the pool based on the actual episodes, but so far, it seems like she needs Daddy to make it work. As for the languages bit, like I told Lili, technically, Shadow is a baby, which means her brain will absorb information like a sponge, which is what Chase is relaying on...

Lizzy, mind if I call you Lizzy?, you either need to stop having so many awesome and epic ideas, start writing them down and submitting them to the site, or give me permission to run with your ideas in a slightly cracky AU of this story. I mean..."And even if they end up together and married I they ride off on Thunderhoof into a sunset" or "Kimiko going on mom daughter trips with Shadow and making sure Chase know there will be trouble if he spys on them" or even the whole Shadow/Ping thing and Chase being overprotective. That stuff is gold! I've chatted with a friend, we both agree, you need to write this stuff down so we can leave you reviews, or we might just run with it in disconnected one-shots.


	7. Chapter 7: Glamour

**AN:/** Seems like a short chapter to me, not that happy about that...special thanks for this chapter goes to Bloodmoon Goddess~! Writer of the story Lady of the Forest. Check it out when you're done here ^_^ Oh, and check my profile for a new poll.

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He was gone for five minutes. FIVE minutes, and then this happens! Though if Chase were in a better mood, he would admit he was gone for closer to a half hour, and that he really should have expected this to happen eventually. His daughter was quite curious after all and had shown an interest, that might eventually evolve into an obsession, in the Dragon of Fire.

Which is why, after Chase returned from sneaking around the Xiaolin Temple and borrowing a few more ancient scrolls, he finds Shadow missing, and the image in the Scrying Pool in centered on a small black haired hair girl with gold eyes. She's hand in hand with a young woman who looks strikingly similar to her, the only apparent difference is the woman's blues eyes. Sensing the faint magical aura around the child, he very quickly surmises that she is under a high-leveled glamour.

Growling, he looks around and spies a certain tigress mage that he had left in charge of watching over Shadow and the other jungle cats, while he visited his old home. She's bowing to him and utterly silent, and he realizes that she's been in that position since he arrived, obviously well-aware that she has much to answer for. Chase narrows his eyes at Rosella and commands with a single word, that she explain what happened while he was gone.

Still with her head bowed, she immediately launches into apologies for going against his orders, but claiming that his daughter had managed to convince her, by way of a bribe, to cast the glamour spell on her and open the teleportation portal embedded in the Scrying Pool. Her story claims that the Xiaolin Monks were all visiting their family, or otherwise, today, and so Shadow took the chance to meet the Dragon of Fire. The golem's supposed plan had been to play the part of a lost little girl, and visit each Xiaolin Dragon-In-Training to learn more about them for herself. Of course, Chase realizes that the real plan must be to learn more about Kimiko, since she has never paid a single bit of attention to any of the others, unless he ordered her to do so first.

Chase paces around the Scrying Pool, watching Shadow pretend to be someone else. He questions Rosella on the details of the glamour she cast, privately wondering why Shadow appeared to be a much more…proper mix between him and Kimiko. The gitano admits that the spell she cast, allowed for the young mistress to choose her own appearance, and that the glamour would remain active until she, Rosella, took it off. Until then, Shadow would always be able to change her appearance, height, and even voice to whatever she so chose.

He stops pacing as he realizes that the glamour could be used to his advantage. He'd just have to train Shadow in choosing more appropriate disguises. It wouldn't do for her to choose a form that gave away her identity. As he begins to happily imagine the different scenarios he could use, sending Shadow to infiltrate the temple for various reasons, he hears the tigress sigh in relief. He glances at her curiously, seeing her lowered eyes follow something, behind him, back and forth with a small smile on her face. He turns around to find out if there's another rat in the cave, but he sees nothing.

His actions make her frown before she hesitantly questions if he realized he was in his True Form. He blinks and finally notices his tail and other draconic features.

_When did I…_

With minimal thought, he returns to his humanoid form. His earlier anger, which has been hovering in the back of his head for the past minute, seemingly disappears as well. Putting it from his mind, he turns his attention back on the golem he created to be his daughter, playing around with her…mother. How is he supposed to handle this? Should he just walk up to them in the middle of the street and drag her away? Should he wear his own glamour before walking up to them and dragging Shadow away? Perhaps he should just wait until Kimiko turns away and then snatch her?

Chase has never kidnapped someone in his life, how is he supposed to get his daughter back with minimal fuss and attention from the general populace of Tokyo? After a few more minutes of watching, and still not coming up with anything, the tigress takes the initiative, and reverts to her Human Form, before walking up to the Scrying Pool and entering it.

Chase watches as Rosella walks up to Shadow and her unknowing mother. The Spanish gypsy claims to be the child's nanny and informs them that the master is home and requesting the presence of the young mistress. The Dragon of Fire initially refuses to let Shadow go with whom she believes is a stranger, but their "six-year old" daughter, answering to the name Himeko, steps up and "admits" that she was lying about being lost and had run away to explore the city while he was in a business meeting.

The Tohomiko heiress' face tells him how disappointed she is in the young girl she had taken under her wing. Seeing her nibble on her lip tells him that she'd like to say something, but deems that it wouldn't be appropriate. Her longing, averted eyes as the tigress and his daughter walk away, tell him that she had grown attached in the short time she had with the daughter she didn't know she had.

When Shadow returns to his lair, and he scolds her for her actions, both of their eyes occasionally stray to the Scrying Pool, which still shows the female monk wandering around her hometown, and yet not once actually going home to her father. Privately, Chase wonders why she doesn't race into her father's arms like she's done every other time he's ever had the chance to see them in the same city.

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**AN:/** If you liked it, feel free to review, if you didn't like it, feel free to leave, if you are too lazy to review or login, then please, refresh the page a couple times so the hit counter goes up. ^_^

**Review Replies:**

Elizabeth - Well, according to this chapter, it _seems_ to be Kimiko that introduces her to the language. As for the blonde, it's all Chase's idea. Hmm, I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out exactly what your latest story idea is, but I'm pretty sure I got the gist of it.


	8. Chapter 8: Halfie

**AN:/** For everyone that celebrates a winter-based holiday, Happy Insert-Your-Holiday-Preference-Here! For everyone that doesn't celebrate such holidays, Happy Gimme-Presents-Day! For everyone following the Gregorian calendar (obviously not Chase), Happy New Year! Hmm, anything else to add? Oh, right! For once, no Guest reviews :( That makes me sad, but happy since that probably means that all previous guest reviewers now have an account I can properly contact them at...well except for lovely Elizabeth, she seems MIA for the holiday season.

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"I'm leaving you in charge." Chase's words startle Shadow, and she looks up from the latest book she's studying from to see him talking with one of the cats that can become human.

_He's leaving? But…_

Shadow lowers her gaze back to her book and pretends to still be reading. She scoots her chair a little closer to the two talking so she can hear better.

"I shouldn't be gone for too long. An hour at the most, she probably won't even realize I'm not here. Make sure she continues studying. And if she should somehow finish her work before I come back…then I guess you can let her watch the monks via the pool. The time for the fall of the Xiaolin Temple is drawing closer, and she needs to be ready to infiltrate."

Shadow's eyes widen as they flit to Chase for a second before returning to staring at the book. She doesn't have many pages left…but she also thinks he'll be back long before he claims. She doesn't realize when exactly he leaves, but she knows she's finished the book. It was about the Japanese language. Chase had ordered her to read through it twice and do all the exercises afterwards, but Shadow had chosen to do them all as she read to save herself some time. Originally, she had thought to show Chase her work and then go hunting with the big cats for those rats that keep finding their way into the cave system.

But now, as she strides up to the former tigress meant to watch her, she has a better idea. Quietly, she offers her the completed workbook. The tigress flips through the pages before sighing and gesturing for her to follow her to the scrying pool, before pulling up the image of the Dragons of Fire and Water riding on the back of the green size-changing dragon that was beginning to look a little yellow. It only takes a minute for Shadow to overhear the bald monk child say something interesting.

_"But why can I not join you Kimiko?_"

_"Omi, this is Family Day. Rai's already gone to see his siblings. Clay's back in Texas. And I'm going to see my Papa. Besides, Jermaine said you could hang out with him today since you already see your family every day at the temple."_

_"But…I wish to visit your father and have laughs with him like we did after we defeated Panda Bubba again!"_

_"No, Omi. Next time we're in Tokyo though, I'll make sure Papa has some time for all of us. Okay?"_

_"Very well…but why can't I just stay with Dojo? He's family too."_

_"Because _I _need to hit the Dragon Spa before my shedding fully hits. And no humans are allowed to enter the secret kingdom."_

Shadow watches as Kimiko jumps off the dragon - Dojo - and waves to her friends as they fly off. The golem grins widely and turns her attention to the tigress that she never bothered to learn the name of. She points at the tiny Kimiko in the pool of water before telling the tigress her demands. "You will help disguise me so I can get close to her and find out any information possible for the inful… infiltration. Since the Xiaolin monks are currently separated, this is the best time."

The tigress shakes her head, "young mistress, those are not the orders your Papa left for me to follow. You are to observe from the safety of the lair. Master Chase would not like to return from his errands, only to find you missing."

Shadow growls in displeasure, trying to convince her to let her go, before she remembers that only Chase understands her when she speaks like that. She quickly switches to Chinese and repeats herself. "You and I both know that he won't do anything to you if he comes back before I finish my mission. He's only tough on the cats that are only cats. Not the cats that are also human. Besides, Chase likes you, you do magic like him, and he scratches your head when you do a good job. I've never seen him raise a hand against you."

"That's true, but he still raises his voice…" The humanoid-tigress sighs, coming to a decision quickly about what to do. "Very well, Mistress Shadow, I'll cast a high-level glamour on you so you may meet _tu mad_…err, _interrogate_ the young Dragon of Fire without worry."

A few minutes later, Shadow finds herself in Tokyo after going through the scrying pool's portal feature. The disguise spell the tiger-human used on her, makes Shadow take the form of a small mixed Japanese six year old girl. Her hair is raven-black, her eyes are amber, and her skin is porcelain pale. She wears what her encyclopedia called a cheongsam, in blue. Not far away, at an ice cream vendor, is the Xiaolin monk Shadow came to observe up close.

She waits until the Dragon-In-Training receives her ice cream cone before Shadow _accidentally_ runs into the young woman, making the ice cream fall. Initially, Kimiko's reaction is to yell at whoever ran into her, until she notices young Shadow giving her teary eyes and fake sniffles. For a moment, Shadow says nothing, content to just stare at the woman who seems even prettier now than she did in the pool.

Kimiko, who had been staring the whole time, shakes her head and bends down to Shadow's level, giving her a light grin. "Hey, missie, you have to be more careful when you're running around. Someone could have gotten really hurt." She says in Japanese.

Shadow feigns trying to understand her, but she doesn't have to fake it too much. She was only introduced to the language two days ago, after all, and is much more fluent in Chinese and English. She continues to fake cry as she apologizes in Chinese. "I'm sorry! I got lost and I was trying to find my…"

_What was the word Kimiko used when talking to the tiny monk?_

She sniffles to cover up her delay. "My Papa. I lost him." Shadow gets an odd feeling when she says that, knowing inwardly that she's placed Chase as her pretend father. Part of her finds it strange, whereas, another part of her finds it fitting.

Kimiko appears dumbstruck. She slips easily in Chinese as well as she examines little Shadow. "Your Papa…"

Shadow can recognize from her lessons on body language, that the Dragon of Fire is caught in a memory thanks to her appearance. She slowly gets frustrated, but manages not to show it as she calls Kimiko's attention back to her. She tugs on her sleeve. "Pretty lady, can you help me find my Papa?"

"I…of course. What's your name, little one? And where did you last see him?" Kimiko replies gently, before her gaze falls on her fallen ice cream. "Hey, do you like ice cream? I'll buy you a cup."

"I…" Shadow mentally starts going through different names. She should have thought of a fake name earlier!

_Oh no, oh no no no, wait, what was that word Spicer used when things went wrong for him? Shit? Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Huh, that makes me feel better. Still need a name…_

"Himeko. I've never had ice cream before, and Papa was last by a thingy with water. What's your name?" Shadow finally stops her fake crying, getting tired of it. Kimiko orders two cups of vanilla ice cream from the vendor, with extra rainbow sprinkles on one and chocolate sprinkles on the other. The Dragon of Fire then turns back around with lets Shadow pick one of the cups of ice cream. The little girl chooses the rainbow sprinkled one.

"I'm Kimiko, ours names are like a pair, huh? Hmm, do you mean the fountain a few blocks east?" Kimiko starts eating her ice cream and gently begins to lead them both away from the vendor. "Oh, and we'll need to call out for your Papa when we get there, but I don't know his name, so what is it?"

Shadow takes a tentative bite of the ice cream, using that time to think up a fake name for her pretend father. She knows she can't say Chase Young. That would ruin everything. "Uhm, Cha…o. Papa's name is Yang Chao, and I'm Yang Himeko."

"Oh? So you're a halfie, like me."

"Yes…"

"Well, at least you remembered your Papa's name. When I was your age, I could never remember my Papa's name. The one time I got lost as a little kid, I told the police that helped me find him that his name was Shippo, when it's really Toshiro."

"Toshiro? Toshiro what? Did you forget your family name?"

Kimiko's face hardens a bit at that and Shadow wonders if she discovered something that Chase didn't know about. He never mentioned that the Dragon of Fire was having family problems. At least, that's what Shadow thinks her face means. Kimiko soon puts on a fake smile and answers, "Nah, I remembered my family name, I just didn't think it would matter to you since we should be looking for _your_ Papa. Now come on, the sooner we find your Papa, the sooner you can go home. You know, Himeko, you have really pretty eyes, I'm guessing your father is to thank for them?"

Kimiko's smile is hesitant when she asks the question, and Shadow can tell that she's thinking hard about something, but she can't for the life of her guess what could make the Dragon of Fire, whom Chase says is normally a spitfire, whatever that means, be so cautious. Instead of thinking on it, Shadow grins widely, "Yup!"

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**AN:/** If you liked it, feel free to review, if you didn't like it, feel free to leave, if you are too lazy to review or login, then please, refresh the page a couple times so the hit counter goes up. ^_^


	9. Chapter 9: Wakarimasen

**AN:/** Now, some may find this redundant, but I consider this necessary. This chapter, along with the last two, all take place on the same day, from different perspectives. We had Chase, then Shadow, now Kimiko. Anything else to say...aa, yes! welcome back to my **Guest Reviewers** who by now know responses to their reviews will always be at the bottom :D Hey, you all see that new chapter to Scavenger Hunt? Alpacas? What's up with that? And seriously...Anonomous Fan, how did they get there? I'm still trying to come up with a good explanation, so far, I'm failing. Uhm, there was something else...oh, do you guys know anyone willing to buy an art commission? I'm still having trouble finding a job, so I thought I could open up commissions until I find something. :(

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She _knew_ those eyes.

She had dreams about those eyes, and the person normally wearing them. Sure, some of those dreams were nightmares, but that's to be expected when you fall for someone you know you can't ever have to yourself. Those eyes have haunted her ever since he first appeared in their lives. But Kimiko had no idea what those eyes were doing on a little girl.

A little girl with her own face and hair.

Of course, it could all be coincidence. She felt the subtle pull of magic on the girl, and could guess she might have really been Chase in disguise. If it weren't for the fact that Kimiko could feel nothing else from the child besides the hint of magic. If it had been Chase…she would have known. She _always_ knew when he's around.

_Well at least this gives me more of an excuse to keep my visit with Papa short._

Then the little girl had to go and say her father's name was Yang Chao. Really? _REALLY?_ Kimiko mentally rolled her eyes. Of all the fake names the kid could have said…Yang was just an alternate spelling, and Chao was obviously a try at fixing the mistake of starting off with the beginning of his real name. Kimiko could tell the little girl, if she really was one, had something to do with Chase.

Maybe it was one of his cats transformed?

"Yang Chao! Is there a Yang Chao around here somewhere? I found your daughter!" Kimiko hollered alongside 'Himeko.' Suddenly, as Kimiko watched the little girl call out for her supposed Papa a few times before getting distracted by a toy vendor not too far away, she had another thought.

Didn't Chase stop by the Temple and steal a scroll that would help him create life? What if this girl was the results of whatever magic was in that scroll? That could explain the hint of magic! But…no, he wouldn't be that stupid. One, he would never make himself a kid just to get over her, and then put her in danger by making the kid look like a perfect mix of them both. Two, even if he was stupid enough to give a magic baby such an appearance, he wouldn't be stupid enough to lose her in Tokyo when he _knew_ Kimiko occassionally visited her hometown. And that her Papa or any long time employees of her father knew how Kimiko looked when she was that young and would no doubt see the resemblance. So that's it…Himeko must really be who she says she is.

Kimiko nibbled on her bottom lip, before she crouched down and brushed stray strands of hair out of Himeko's face. "You know, it seems your Papa must have gone elsewhere looking for you. After that time I was lost, my Papa told me that if I ever get lost again, I should find my way to the last place I saw him, and stay there until he found me. So that's what we're going to do. And I'm going to stay with you. We're going to hang out around here until he finds us. We'll go to all the vendors around the area, buy you a bunch of neat things, spoil your appetite, and just plain have fun. And if your Papa doesn't find us within the hour, then we'll find a police officer and he'll help us, okay?"

The little girl nodded after a moment. "Kimiko is nice."

The Dragon of Fire in Training laughed at that, "oh really? My friends don't really seem to think so. They're always telling me to calm down and stop hitting them."

"Why do you hit them?"

"The boys? Well, have you heard the phrase 'Girls rule, boys drool?'" At her hesitant nod, Kimiko continued. "Most of my friends are boys, and we all go to a martial arts school together. But they're always belittling my ability to hit back. Saying I have no strength and stuff like that. So, I have to prove it to them. I have to prove that I am just as good as them, but they're boys, they don't talk like us girls. They talk with their fists. Boys are always fighting each other and then claiming to be friends a few seconds later. And when they like someone more than a friend, they tend to pick on that person, except here in Japan. Boys in Japan will more or less ignore the girls they like, even when they're all in the same group."

Kimiko saw Himeko nodding along with her words, and wondered if, at the tender age of six, the young girl was already having boy problems in school. She smiled before continuing. "Girls however, we actually talk, with words and subtle actions. We say what's on our minds in words that may seem random to boys, but girls understand. If we're talking about something like food, then one girl may say something about hating McDonald's teriyaki burgers but being unable to resist them. Every girl would understand that she means she hates how addictive they are and how bad they are for her health, but all a boy would hear is that she doesn't like teriyaki burgers. And when we like somebody? We try and get close without seeming clingy. Maybe play with our hair a bit. We lower our eyes occasionally, we stretch randomly. We lean in close and pull back out quickly. All with a smile on our faces.

"But boys don't understand any of that. So to make sure my friends know that I'm just as good as them, I talk in their language since they can't talk in our language. Do you understand?" Kimiko finished off her explanation, realizing she dragged on a bit.

"I think so…" Himeko responded, her head tilted to the side and a finger against her lip. She took a breath then, just before speaking again. "How do you know when you like someone as more than a friend?"

Kimiko's eyes softened. Her earlier wonderings turned out to be true, it seemed. She placed a hand on her heart. "There's a warmth, right here in your heart. Whenever you see that person, whenever you think of that person." Then her hand moved down to her stomach. "And here, in your belly, you get uneasy, there's so much energy there, it's like butterflies are flying around in there. Maybe you'll feel like throwing up, but that's okay." Then Kimiko tapped on her head. "And here, your head will either feel blank and empty like space. Or so full that it could burst at any moment. Your thoughts won't slow down, they'll jump everywhere and you won't be able to think straight."

Himeko nibbled on her lip, giving Kimiko the distinct thought that the little girl must have felt those things. "And…can you like more than one person like that? Can it be anyone? Girl or boy? Young or old?"

_Oh…she must have a crush on her teacher…_

The lost child's words inadvertently caused Kimiko to remember her teacher from her last year of grammar school. She had a crush on that man, always comparing him to her favorite manga character that just happened to share similar looks with him. Same long, pale hair. Same aloofness. Kimiko remembered how, on the last day of classes, she made a fool of herself by asking Taisho-sensei to marry her once she was old enough. He had told her, that he was flattered, but that he was engaged to a very beautiful woman with similar eyes to Kimiko. She was crushed, and very soon after was when she discovered she could minutely control fire.

"You can like more than one person like that. But you would have to decide on only one of them since most people don't like sharing. And it can be anyone, boy or girl. But if you like someone like, say…your teacher, then you have to ignore that and change how you feel. Because you are a child, and children should only like children. Like adults should only like adults. Okay?"

Himeko frowned in response, and was about to speak again, when she and Kimiko heard a soft female voice call out to the little girl. "Mistress Himeko, it's time to go home. The master is home from his earlier business and has been wondering where you've run off to."

Kimiko turned her head to the voice and saw an olive-skinned woman in a red skirt and white shirt, her dark brown hair held back by a white handkerchief. For a second, she wondered how she didn't notice the woman before, then her thoughts changed to making sure the little girl under her charge knew the woman. "Himeko, do you know this woman?"

Himeko appeared disappointed at the woman's appearance and stuck out her bottom lip in a pout. The woman bowed her head to Kimiko before speaking again. "Forgive me, miss. I am the young mistress's nanny. When I took her out earlier, she got away from me. By the time I found her, she had been clinging tight to your arm and walking with you here. Watching you, I decided that it would be best if I allowed her to have this small freedom and pretend to be something she's not. That way she would be more agreeable when she meets with her father again. But a minute ago, I received a call from home, saying her presence was requested immediately. And so, now I stand here to take her back from you."

Kimiko narrowed her eyes at the woman. There wasn't any hesitation, or any usual signs of lying from her. But she had to make sure. "Is she telling the truth?"

Himeko's pout increased. "Yes…I ran away from my nanny because I wanted a bit of fun and because Papa was busy with a business meeting. It was nice to meet you Kimiko." She stepped away from Kimiko and stepped towards the nanny. She waved at the Dragon of Fire before she and the nanny walked away.

Kimiko nibbled on her lip again like she's been doing all day for varying reasons. The time she spent with the little girl…it had been fun, though they hadn't done much. She kind of wished for a bit more time with Himeko. It felt…nice, being a big sister to someone.

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**AN:/** If you liked it, feel free to review, if you didn't like it, feel free to leave, if you are too lazy to review or login, then please, refresh the page a couple times so the hit counter goes up. ^_^

Oh, and the title means "I'm not sure" although the really old book I learned the phrase in said it meant "I don't understand." And did you all see that Inuyasha and SessKag reference? I didn't mean to, it just kinda happened...

**Replies:**

Elizabeth - Yeah, the tigress AKA Rosella stopped herself from saying "tu madre" since she knows the full details of Shadow's birth. Well, I intended for a bit about Kimiko's family in this chapter but it didn't happen, as for the "mum is Chinese" bit, that's not what I meant by "halfie." I merely meant that Kimiko is only half-Japanese, modern Japanese anyways. Blue eyes aren't exactly common in the modern Japanese genepool, which means they have to come from somewhere else. And yes, Willow will be making an appearance soon enough :D Just another chapter or three. No sneak peeks! …I haven't written that part yet. The new episodes for Chronicles keep being pushed back, I think they're currently set to air in February? Tigress Woo and the Ping one have not aired yet, to my knowledge. And considering I'm updating IWAM within the week, I'll keep answers about that one, to me. :P

Lili Lina - Have they been? Might have been the fact that I haven't had much to say in review replies lately. *shrugs*


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